Hermetic optical component packaging to date has employed metallic cans into which are disposed optoelectronic devices and with connections made to optical fibers. Typically, the active optoelectronic device is mounted on a submount and the submount is bonded to a metal package. Wire bonds are used to make electrical connections to wire pins which extend from a metal header. A hermetic seam seal is used to bond a metal cap to the header. Generally, the caps are lensed with a ball lens or have an ultra flat glass window or a cap with an optical fiber pigtail.
Lensed cap assemblies are commonly used in an active device mount (ADM) to effect coupling to an optical fiber. Typically, a mating connector containing an optical fiber is attached to the ADM. It is necessary to actively align the ADM and the fiber to the subassembly and then secure the assembly by welding, epoxy or soldering. This is a labor intensive procedure and furthermore there is a yield loss associated with the securing procedure, high costs associated with the packaging and an inherent complexity of the final assembly. All these factors singly and combined result in a high cost end product. Additionally, these assemblies tend to be bulky and are not readily encapsulable to form standard IC type packages.
Metallized fibers, having relatively thin metal coatings have been disclosed for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,668 to Presby, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a metalization about the circumference of the fiber. Bonding to another fiber or to a device is effected by welding or soldering in the radial direction about the outer circumference of the metalized fiber. As is shown in FIG. 6 of the '668 patent, a separate housing is required to effect coupling between the device 69 and the fiber 60. This invention then requires active alignment of the fiber to the device. This invention is inherently labor intensive and bulky in design. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,820 to Ten Berge, incorporated herein by reference, a metalized fiber is disclosed which allows for fiber-fiber and fiber-device coupling by crimping the metalized fiber. This invention effects fiber-device coupling via a lens as is shown in FIG. 16 of the '820 patent. This is accomplished by the disposing the fiber needle 74 and the lens 76 at opposite ends of a metal sleeve. Light from a laser is impingent on the lens for coupling to the fiber.
It is desirable to effect an accurate alignment between a fiber optic waveguide and a device without the aforementioned costs or complexities in assembly.